Source: Efforts to atone for Gukurahundi – DailyNews Live
Jeffrey Muvundusi 25 March 2017
BULAWAYO – Former Magwegwe legislator Felix Mafa Sibanda – through his
Post-Independent Survivors Trust (Pist) – is moving to pressure government
to address Gukurahundi atrocities.
The atrocities have become known as the country’s worst genocide.
Thousands of men, women and children were shot, starved, and tortured to
death by members of the Fifth Brigade as they put down an insurrection in
Matabeleland and the Midlands provinces in the early years after the 1980
independence.
For more than 30 years, the atrocities have been largely forgotten in
Zimbabwe.
Now, a series of events is raising the profile of the massacre of the
Ndebele people and bringing justice for their descendants a little closer.
A push for possible reparation and national healing is underway and
proponents hope for an official apology.
And for Sibanda, part of Pist’s objectives is “to assist victims of
Gukurahundi – old and young – to procure official documents and to
document human rights violations as well as help political victims in
post-independent Zimbabwe”.
Sibanda, who is also the provincial deputy spokesperson for the Morgan
Tsvangirai-led MDC, said he was compelled to form the organisation after
he lost his first born during the widely condemned atrocities.
“My first born son, Canaan, a former Zipra cadre, was killed in cold blood
by the 5th Brigade at the instigation of Zanu PF leadership then. He was
killed in 1985 in Loretto/Silobela Police Station and shoved into a
disused mine. Later, his bones were discovered by (panners),” he said.
“In that disused gold mine were 12 skulls of which it was hard to
positively identify who was who. What assisted us were coins found in the
shaft with bones,” Sibanda narrated.
He said what touches him till today is that he was never given an
opportunity to bury his son.
But now he appears to have gained solace in assisting fellow affected
citizens in Matabeleland and Midlands provinces.
“As an organisation, we have instituted programmes in the affected areas
like Silobela, Lupane, Nkayi, Gwanda, Bhalagwe, and Kezi just to mention a
few places of concern. We documented whatever we observed or told by
victims,” Sibanda said.
He added: “We discovered that what was immediately needed were birth
certificates. We have assisted 156 victims to date. We also assisted six
families to acquire missing persons’ certificates.”
While lack of funding has hindered his programme, Sibanda said his
determination was to see the truth about the genocide being publicised.
“If partners would be brave to sponsor this project, victims of the
post-independent Zimbabwe would be much better than at present moment.
People must open up and demand justice and cause reconciliation but
justice and truth first. We need transitional justice.”
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